Sic Semper Tyrannis Thirty-One of the Top Reasons Why Lincoln Was a Tyrant

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Sic Semper Tyrannis, these words shouted by John Wilkes Booth immediately after he shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington D. C. at the close of the Civil War have seldom been pondered upon. Interpreted, Sic Semper Tyrannis means Thus Always to Tyrants. Exactly why did Booth consider Lincoln a tyrant? Several modern day books have attempted to reveal who the real Lincoln really was. Despite the liberal revisionist view of portraying Lincoln as a savior comparable to Christ what has been discovered by in-depth research proves revealingly otherwise. With the restrictions in this forum we will suffice to compile a simple list showing what John Wilkes Booth observed in President Abraham Lincoln that could qualify him to actually be a TYRANT.

1. In March 1861, before the start of the Civil War a Peace Commission with ex-President John Tyler as a member traveled to Washington D. C. in hopes of avoiding war. Lincoln refused to meet with them. The Southerners offered to pay for any Federal property on Southern soil as well as the Southern portion of the national debt. Napoleon III of France offered to mediate the dispute but was also rebuffed by Lincoln.

2. It was known that Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston harbor was to be abandon but Lincoln had the Federal garrison ordered from a nearby fort into Fort Sumter. During negotiations with South Carolina Lincoln broke the truce by ordering Federal gunboats to resupply the fort. Lincoln saw an opportunity to inaugurate civil war without appearing as an aggressor by maneuvering the South to fire the first shot. Below and to the left is an image of John Wilkes Booth.

3. Lincoln started the war without the consent of Congress.

4. Lincoln sent a request to all governors of non-seceding states to send military troops in order to unconstitutionally invade their sister states by coercing them into submission. Lincoln's reasoning was to march troops of one State into another in order to do his will. Lincoln ignored the fact that the Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States and that they did not surrender their sovereignty by uniting together.

5. Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus, jailing anyone who differed with his opinion and keeping them locked up for the duration of the war without benefit of attorney or having any charges brought against them, denying them a trial by jury.

6. Lincoln ignored the decisions of the Supreme Court when they ruled against his policies and wrote out a warrant for the arrest of the Chief Justice Roger Taney when he ruled against Lincoln's unconstitutional actions.

7. Lincoln imposed military rule on parts of the South that became conquered territory during the war.

8. Lincoln supported a Confiscation Act that allowed the Federal army to plunder private property as they went.

9. Lincoln authorized the billeting of Federal soldiers in private homes in the South in areas that were under military occupation.

10. Lincoln authorized a naval blockade of Southern ports even though he never referred to the Confederacy as a "foreign power." The Constitution permits such blockades only in time of war with a foreign power.

11. During the war, when parts of the Southern states were under military occupation and the citizens there had no voting rights in the Union, they were nevertheless taxed severely, with the military using the most drastic tax collection measures. Lincoln did not hesitate for a moment to impose a regime of taxation without representation on the occupied South.

12. Southern men were executed for refusing the take a loyalty oath to the Lincoln government while many others were imprisoned.

13. Freedom of religion was denied as churches and pastors were compelled to pray from their pulpits for the success of the Union and for the President of the United States or else the pastors were imprisoned and the churches closed or burned to the ground.

14. Lincoln declared all secessionists and peace advocates to be "traitors" who were undeserving of the protection of federal laws.

15. Lincoln permitted over 350 Northern newspapers to be shut down and their buildings and their presses destroyed simply for editorializing in favor of ending the war. By September 1861, all opposition newspapers in New York were censored with the help of military force. Secretary of War William A. Seward used his secret police to scour the countryside for any editors that did not support the Lincoln administration's war policy.

16. Lincoln deported Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham, after he opposed Lincoln's income tax proposal during a Democratic Party rally in Ohio. Vallandigham was a loyal Unionist and after being deported South made his way to Canada living there until the war was over.

18. Lincoln authorized the enlistment of foreign troops, non-citizens who did not know the English language and had to be commanded by foreign speaking officers.

19. Lincoln abandoned the accepted rules of war and authorized "total war" on the South, directing his army against the civilian population and not only against armed forces and organizations, the first such action in history, purposely destroying all property and life possible in the South making them unable to rebuild any semblance of their former way of life.

20. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which only abolished slavery in Southern territories that Federal troops had no control over. It was Lincoln's real intention that his proclamation would encourage a slave revolt in the South causing havoc behind Southern lines and forcing Confederate troops out of the field to protect their families. Lincoln's proclamation did not free a single slave.

21. Lincoln authorized the use of total war by allowing his generals to plunder the South in an orgy of pillaging, burning, executing civilians and terrorizing communities unlike any other in the annals of history.

22. Lincoln threatened to prosecute state judges who allowed criminal prosecutions of government officials to go forward.

23. Lincoln opposed secession when it suited him but allowed the secession of West Virginia and set up a puppet government to carry out his will. Neither the president nor Congress had the constitutional authority to create a new state.

24. In order to suppress the Freedom of the Press Lincoln ordered his Postmaster General to deny newspapers mail delivery to those that differed with his opinions resulting in forcing the papers out of circulation. When the editors hired private messengers to deliver their papers Lincoln ordered Federal marshals to confiscate the papers forcing them into bankruptcy.

25. While Missouri was still part of the Union and a sovereign state Lincoln had the legally elected government chased out of the State at the point of the bayonet and installed a provisional government that supported his policies.

26. By September 1861, Lincoln had Maryland under complete military occupation in order to keep its Legislature from being allowed to vote on secession or to remain neutral. General Benjamin Butler threatened to bombard Annapolis if the Legislature met there. When they attempted to meet elsewhere Lincoln had the legislators arrested and held without due process. Election judges were ordered to disallow any votes for candidates opposed to Lincoln's war.

27. It is estimated that Lincoln had over 13,000 political prisoners held in military prisons.

28. Lincoln's war on the South was a determined move to inexorably change the Balance of Power by abolishing the supremacy of State's Rights from checking uncontrolled Federal expansion and power. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both wrote that "the federal union is a voluntary association of states, and if the central government goes too far each state has the right to nullify that law."

29. Lincoln destroyed the idea of the Union as a voluntary association of states by forcing the Southern states to remain in the Union at gunpoint.

30. Lincoln censored all telegraph communication.

31. Lincoln ordered the confiscation of all firearms in violation of the Second Amendment.

Suffice it to say the above list is only a portion of the unconstitutional actions taken by Lincoln during the Civil War. Let the reader be unchained by political correctness and decide for themselves whether to believe whitewashed myths rather than historical truth.

Below is an engraving that was originally published in Harper's Weekly. Although it was supposed to represent the outage of Ladies Liberty and Justice at the bullet used by Booth, but if you look close you will see a slight smile on their lips.